Lawmaker floats $10,000 public college degree for science, tech careers

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Students throw their mortarboards in the air during their college graduation. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Northern California Assemblyman Dan Logue wants to make it quicker and cheaper for students to earn college degrees in lucrative, job-rich industries.

His Assembly Bill 51, introduced Dec. 21, would cap the price of science, technology, engineering, or math degrees at three pilot California State University campuses at $10,000 dollars. That’s less than half of what they cost now.

“The biggest issue we have is that a lot of these kids are graduating in a four-year college with a degree where they aren’t really being hired because there’s not a demand for it,” Logue said. The pilot campuses are CSU Long Beach, CSU Chico, and CSU Stanislaus. The bill would allow students to take college-level classes in high school, then attend community college before transferring to the Cal State campus.

The bill calls for the state to pick up the additional costs. It comes in the midst of criticism over the rising cost of tuition at California’s public universities.